Fundraising to begin for scaled-back West Haven arts center plan

Fundraising to begin for initial phase

Published 7:43 pm, Tuesday, December 13, 2016

WH Arts Center gets architect

Media: New Haven Register

WEST HAVEN >> The revamped board of directors of the West Haven Center for the Arts has hired an organizational and fundraising consultant and an architect to try to create an arts center in the former Masonic Temple at 304 Center St., officials said Tuesday.

“Right now, it’s about raising the money,” said Mayor Ed O’Brien. He said the previously stalled project would move forward “as soon as we can.”

Toward that end, the new board of the not-for-profit organization has scaled back the original plan and will raise money to renovate only the first floor to start, he said.

“We’re going to do one floor, get it open and continue to fundraise for the second floor,” O’Brien said.

City officials hope eventually to use the arts center as a magnet to help bring people to West Haven Center, which in turn would provide customers for present and future center businesses.

Earlier this year, the board hired consultant Catherine Bradshaw of Cadence Consulting LLC of Guilford to run ongoing fundraising and renovation efforts to complete the center’s future home, said board Chairwoman Susan McCarthy.

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The West Haven Center For the Arts has hired an organizational andfundraising consultant and an architect to help bring the dream of anarts center in the city-owned former Masonic Temple on Center Streetto fruition. less

The West Haven Center For the Arts has hired an organizational andfundraising consultant and an architect to help bring the dream of anarts center in the city-owned former Masonic Temple on Center Streetto ... more

Photo: Digital First Media

Fundraising to begin for scaled-back West Haven arts center plan

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Bradshaw will oversee the project to convert the former Masonic Temple, which West Haven bought in 2007 from Annawon Lodge 115 with a $650,000 state grant, into “a first-class cultural arts center,” McCarthy said in a release.

“Catherine is reviewing the plans with the board and the city on a regular basis to monitor progress on deliverables and to determine whether additional resources and time are needed to achieve project goals,” said McCarthy, a senior marketing director at a biopharmaceutical company in Westchester County, New York.

Bradshaw is working with the board and the city to enhance the organizational structure required to operate the center. She also provides professional support for fundraising and strategic planning for the center’s development, McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the board is focused primarily on securing funding for the center, including grant money for interior improvements.

Last month, the board hired achitect William Sapienza of Sapienza Architects LLC at 420 Campbell Ave. to design the building’s interior, said city Commissioner of Planning and Development Joseph Riccio Jr., who is a member of the board.

Sapienza, who also is chairman of the city’s West Haven High School Building Committee, will draw up fresh plans for the project, which previously had plans drawn for a two-floor renovation, Riccio said in the release.

The scaled-back project will reduce initial construction costs and will allow the center to open sooner, Riccio said. A finished first floor also would help advance a fundraising campaign for the second-floor phase, he said.

Turner Brooks Architects of New Haven drew the original interior renovation design plans for the previous board in 2012. Those plans have been scrapped in favor of new plans “that will better represent the vision of the five-member board and Mayor Edward M. O’Brien,” said McCarthy.

Sapienza, who the board hired for $20,000, is expected to deliver his plans to the board and O’Brien over the winter, she said.

In addition to McCarthy and Riccio, the board of directors includes West Haven Council on the Arts member Paul Scanlon, Hamden Hall drama teacher Karl Gasteyer, who is former executive director of the Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport, and downtown attorney Vincent R. Falcone.

Bradshaw is paid a monthly stipend based on hours devoted to the project. She has experience developing nonprofit organizations and has assisted numerous arts organizations to develop strategic plans, including the Elm Shakespeare Co. in New Haven, the Ivoryton Playhouse and the Klein, officials said.

Bradshaw’s contract stipulates that “the total fees for the project will not exceed $31,500 unless the scope of service is renegotiated” between the board and her, the release states.

The board is paying both Bradshaw and Sapienza with funds from a $500,000 gift the city received from Yale University in April 2009 to help support the multimillion-dollar arts center project. The city is the board’s fiduciary partner.

The center will complement West Haven’s three-year-old Metro-North Railroad commuter station and the proposed The Haven upscale outlet mall as destinations that drive economic development for the downtown business district, O’Brien said in the release.

“This arts and entertainment center will serve as a catalyst for economic growth in the center of West Haven,” O’Brien said. “I am confident that under the direction of Catherine Bradshaw and the board of directors, this highly anticipated project will finally see the light of day.”

While the former Masonic Temple has been sitting vacant, it has undergone some improvements.

In 2012, crews from L&M Construction Co. and Mercury Solar Systems, both of Port Chester, New York, installed new windows and an energy-efficient metal roof with skylights and solar panels on the 15,022-square-foot building, using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Other completed improvements include repair and facade work to preserve the architectural integrity of the 104-year-old building, along with new ionic columns and doors, which were done by Kronenberger & Sons Restoration Inc. The Middletown contractor specializes in the restoration, preservation and adaptive reuse of period structures.

The center is being financed as a fiscal development project with more than $200,000 worth of Community Development Block Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It has also received $550,000 from the state Bond Commission, $371,000 from the U.S. Energy Department, $40,000 from the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s Offices of Culture and Tourism, and $20,000 from the Connecticut Main Street Center.